Leave It To The DC Establishment To Screw Up Democratic Races Across The Country: Hawaii And Orange County

No reason to settle for crooked GOP-lite candidates in primaries when you have solid progressives like Laura Oatman and Kaniela Ing running

Many of the people who have ever even heard of Doug Chin just know him from the Rachel Maddow show where she celebrates anyone who hates Trump without ever giving any context. In Chin’s case she could have mentioned he was a conservative corporate lobbyist who was appointed-- not even properly vetted for or elected as-- Attorney General. That was common knowledge and Maddow’s researchers should have caught it. What was less easy to find was that he claimed there was an “oversight” after he was exposed for not reporting (hiding) money paid for lobbying for the private prison industry, which is very controversial in Hawaii. Most people who have followed Chin’s career know he kept that information private deliberately to prevent the state Senate from knowing that they were confirming a private prison lobbyist to be the Attorney General.

This has become an issue because Chin has repaid CCA, who paid him a great deal of money (over $100,000), by blocking release to the public of information on problems at the private prison. None of the money he accepted from CCA was disclosed before he was appointed and confirmed as Attorney General in January, 2015. He-- and his clients-- clearly broke state ethics rules by withholding reports of at least 4 payments until after he was confirmed. The shady lobbyist payments were the only amendments to his state filing. Last week a complaint was filed with the Hawaii State Ethics Commission.

Chin-- an opportunist and make-believe Democrat-- is now running for Congress and has said all along, quite adamantly just this week in fact, that he would not resign as Attorney General during the campaign. He seems to have changed his mind about that since the ethics complaint was filed.

Another crappy establishment candidate, this one in Orange County, California, is Hans Keirstead, even sillier to think of in Congress than Doug Chin. Hans was recruited by one faction of the clownish DCCC while another faction was recruiting Harley Rouda. Then both were recognized as conservatives by the New Dems, which endorsed them both. The DCCC was then left with 2 lousy candidates from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party running for Dana Rohrabacher’s seat. Fortunately, there’s a progressive in the race as well-- being studiously ignored by the DC Dems-- Laura Oatman. When the DCCC had their “Candidates Week” to introduce their pathetic conservative candidates to lobbyists, they sent invitations to Harley and Hans and thought no one would notice they had excluded Laura. I noticed-- but when I complained, the only answer I could get was that “everyone is invited,” typical of the DCCC as a lamer than lame excuse for sending two formal invitations and then claiming the third candidate was welcome if she found out about it and wanted to crash their little boys club.

Yes, I’ve told that story before but there’s a new aspect that I just read about. Keirstead, easily the lesser of the 2 New Dems, tried pulling the wool over CA-48 voters’ eyes by making up a cock’n’bull story that Steny Hoyer had promised him a committee chairmanship, an absurdity on it’s face, although we’ll never know what Hoyer actually told this fool. Keirstead keeps yapping like a dog about how he’s a scientist and how science needs a voice in Congress. How about we just pick honest scientists instead-- and not liars and manipulators trying to turn scientists into another lame identity group?

Democratic candidate Hans Keirstead faced a familiar question at a local party meeting [in Seal Beach] in November: What kind of committees could you sit on, and how would that benefit the district?

But his answer has caused some confusion.

The prominent cancer researcher and political newcomer said House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, a top member of leadership, told him he would like to give Keirstead an “early appointment” on the influential Appropriations Committee, and that leaders wanted to make him chairman of the Science, Space and Technology Committee.

It turns out that wasn’t the case. [Hans was lying his ass off to the people he expected to help make him a congressman.]

Hoyer’s office denied that the whip made such assertions.

“No, neither of those statements is remotely true,” the Maryland Democrat’s spokeswoman Katie Grant said in a statement .“The idea that Mr. Hoyer would promise a candidate either a chairmanship or a seat on Appropriations is preposterous.”

…“It’s not inspiring for me to become a freshman congressman and to be pushed around and told what to vote on by my party and have no power or control,” he said in a video recording of the meeting.

He described meeting with dozens of members of Congress, including top leaders like Hoyer.

“I have been honored, I have been just humbled by the fact that they want me to chair the Science Committee, which is actually no great compliment because it’s an embarrassment,” Keirstead said.

“So in a meeting that I had with Steny Hoyer, he said, ‘We would like to put you as chairman of the Science Committee, rejigger that thing, get it, get it working and get it up to scruff. But that’s not going to do you any favors in the short term. I’d also like to give you an early appointment onto Appropriations,’” Keirstead said.

…The House Democratic Caucus relies heavily on seniority when selecting committee chairmen. The Science, Space and Technology Committee, which has jurisdiction over research and development projects, has 16 Democrats on the panel, and most would be senior to Keirstead if he is elected.

Committee assignments are determined by the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee at the beginning of each Congress. Lawmakers can lobby for spots on desired panels, but determinations involve an array of factors including seniority, available openings, regional balance, and a lawmaker’s applicability to the committee’s issues.

The Appropriations Committee is one of the most powerful panels in Congress since it oversees government spending. It is also an exclusive committee for Democrats, meaning members on Appropriations do not serve on other panels.

Keirstead said at the November meeting that a seat on the committee would give him considerable sway over health care issues.

“I will be one of the most influential people in science, medicine and health care in this nation,” he said.

Keirstead also said the prospect of having influence, even as a first-term lawmaker, is one of the reasons he decided to run for Congress.

 Roll Call made one error in reporting. The writer reported that the Science Committee “has 16 Democrats on the panel, and most would be senior to Keirstead if he is elected.” Actually, every single one of them would be senior to Keirstead. The two most senior Democrats, chairwomen Eddie Bernie Johnson, and Zoe Lofgren, have no intention of giving up years of seniority so Hans can waltz into the chairmanship. I talked to another member (on condition of anonymity) who told me that Hans “sounds like a prima dona [with]… an inflated vision of his capacity… I wish guys like him would start on the town council or the state legislature and figure out how governing works… [and] how to work and play well with others… How do you think Johnson feels about that report in the press? If he’s even elected, I’m sure Don Beyer will teach him how to behave when EB puts him on the oversight subcommittee. He shouldn’t expect anything more relevant until he’s put in some service beyond self-service.”

And, yes, there’s an even worse candidate running in Rohrabacher’s district, another self funder from another district, Omar Siddiqui who was a Republican and now calls himself (openly) a “Reagan Democrat.” He lives in CA-39 but doesn’t want to run against Ed Royce because he likes him too much. Blue America is enthusiastic about Laura Oatman and if you’d like to help make sure that neither Hans nor Omar gets into Congress as Democrats, please consider clicking on the ActBlue California thermometer on the right and contributing what you can to Laura’s grassroots campaign. The fact that the DCCC is ignoring her efforts makes her an even more attractive candidate. Her Bernie-oriented platform is far more in line with what energized voters in Orange County are looking for than a plateful of GOP-lite garbage. Hans’ website is all about Hans-- not about Orange County voters and not about any issues at all. The guy’s a joker, a product of typical DCCC incompetence. One thing everyone can agree on-- DC has enough unethical players already without adding more sleaze bags like Doug Chin and Hans Keistead.

Here’s the truculent crackpot, caught live on CNN, who Laura Oatman will have to work to replace in November after she beats the conservative Democrats in the primary:



UPDATE: Corrupt AG Steps Down

As we predicted, ex-private prison and Wall Street lobbyist Doug Chin, Hawaii’s sleazy appointed Attorney General, quit his job just days after saying he wouldn’t. He says he quit so he could devote all his energy to his congressional race, but what really made him back away from his pledge to keep working? See above but, the short version is that he didn’t want voters to see him fighting charges that he has an ethics battle over shady dealings with private prison firm CCA and how he got confirmed. His last day is March 15.

The Honolulu Congressional District Is One Of America's Bluest-- But The Establishment Is Trying To Sneak An "Ex"-Republican Into The Seat

There's only one real Democrat running for the open seat in Honolulu

Sunday I sent Marianne Williamson, an old friend, a note introducing her to Hawaii state Rep. Kaniela Ing. I'm guessing most people on Maui think of him as the guy who writes legislation that's a step or three ahead of where the rest of the state-- and country-- are. He's working on things like tuition-free education, guaranteed minimum income (advocated in the past by Abu Bakr, Thomas Paine and Napoleon and, more recently, by Friedrich Hayek, Richard Nixon, John Kenneth Galbraith and Daniel Patrick Moynihan), 100% renewable energy (by 2035), scrapping the cap on Social Security and, of course, impeaching Trump. But when I introduced him to Marianne, what I brought up was his commitment to mandatory labeling of genetically engineered food, pesticide disclosure and bufferzones, common-sense regulation of harmful chemicals like Glysophate and regenerative, o‍‍‍rganic agriculture.‍‍‍ In Maui, Kaniela led the citizens' initiative campaign against Monsanto and won-- the first time a citizens initiative campaign won in the state's history.

Marianne has been traveling around the country introducing progressive congressional candidates like Jenny Marshall in North Carolina to her own supporters. I'm hoping she'll include Honolulu on her list of events. Kaniela, the most progressive Democrat in Hawaii's legislature is running for Congress. But what's really strange is that his 3 opponents in the Democratic primary are conservative Republicans pretending to be Democrats. You think I'm kidding? Let's start with the only other declared candidate, EMILY's List Special, Donna Kim, an anti-LGBQ fanatic. A few years ago when EMILY's List failed to foist Kim on Hawaiian voters I wrote that "Many elderly ladies who remember when EMILY's List was founded by Ellen Malcolm 30 years ago don't realize EMILY's List has swung from being a basically progressive organization to being one of the most conservative and untrustworthy elements in the Democratic coalition. 'We don't care about anything except electing pro-choice women to office,' they use as their excuse for backing absolutely horrible conservatives most of the time-- even when their conservative candidate, like Kim, isn't even really pro-Choice. It's identity politics at its ugliest. EMILY's List is backing Kim because Kim is a woman. Other candidates in the race are much more pro-choice than Kim but… well, that's EMILY's List 2014. Maybe EMILY's List should have consulted with the Patsy T. Mink PAC, which is Hawaii's progressive version of EMILY's List. They have never once endorsed the conservative Donna Kim in her 30 years of politics. There's a reason for that.

For one thing, Kim regularly campaigns at vehemently anti-Choice fundamentalist churches, and even partners with them in her official capacity. It hasn't been clear Kim is even pro-contraception. In 2012, when seeking the endorsement of the anti-choice Hawaii Family Forum, she described herself as undecided on whether rape victims should be entitled to emergency contraception. She very pointedly hasn’t commented on the Hobby Lobby decision.

EMILY's List head Schriock, who apparently knows as little about Hawaii politics as her organization knew about Memphis when they waded into an anti-semitic campaign there with their bulging wallets wide open, also described Kim as "pro-labor" and "pro-education," which was equally surprising to anyone watching this race for an open seat in Hawaii's First Congressional District. Kim is well known for railing against public-employee unions and what she regards as excess in social services and public education. In fact, that's probably what she's most known for (well, in addition to corruption, always a big turn-on for EMILY's List). Opposition to public investment is certainly what she wants to be known for, as she brings it up at every opportunity. It’s why she’s called “outspoken."

She regularly appears on right-wing media to argue for cuts in government programs with the type of impassioned outrage that would make a Tea Partier blush. As we once reported, when she appeared on the local Christian Coalition's TV show (as a "very, very special guest"), she exclaimed to the enraptured host that educators “getting paid huge dollars!” She complains to birther-friendly bloggers that educators’ salaries are “bloated.” Her campaign website notes that Kim supports a balanced-budget amendment, which of course would be ruinous.

On its website, the Christian Coalition describes Kim as "fantastic." She is the always that organization's favorite, as she's regarded as the only reliable anti-LGBT candidate of any party. So Hawaii is seeing a partnership of EMILY's List and the Christian Right for the first time. Donna Kim is the Nikki Tinker of the Pacific, the face of EMILY's List's downward trajectory. Kim’s unwavering loyalty to corporate interests and the Religious Right have helped turn her into a prodigious fundraiser. While the media can be expected to focus on the horse race and always lauds Kim for her prowess at generating campaign cash, her right-leaning record usually goes unexamined. She has always favored business over labor and consumers:

"My first priority to help businesses will be to work with the business community for their suggestions on ways that we can eliminate unnecessary regulations and requirements that make it difficult to run a business. On a long-term note, I will make a comprehensive review of existing laws, compare them with other more business-friendly states and come up with a comprehensive package to make Hawaii attractive to national and international businesses."

She has a well-earned reputation for trying to humiliate public employees and fight public projects during legislative hearings. Her incessant attacks on the public sector, which often include allegations of unethical conduct, have been praised in conservative media outlets. (Meanwhile, Kim occasionally gets called out on her own ethics.) And while long a foe of environmentalists (dating back to her days as a pro-development Honolulu City Councilmember), Kim has been lauded by the Hawaii Christian Coalition (for introducing a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage) and New Hope Honolulu (a Christian fundamentalist church where she’s been received as a VIP attendee).

OK, two more arch-conservatives are running against Kaniela as well. Remember Beth Fukumoto? Earlier this year Republicans in the state House fired her as GOP minority leader after she criticized Trump. As far back as 2013, national media was lauding her as one of the new breed of conservative Republican women remaking the right. She was lumped in-- rightfully-- with hardcore Republican politicians like drunken New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez (NM), Scott Walker's extremist Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, corrupt Trumpist Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Alabama Congresswoman and current Roy Moore supporter Martha Roby, Utah rightist Mia Love and Nicole Malliotakis, the female Michael Grimm, a corrupt Staten Island wing nut who went with Grimm to Cyprus to visit a Putin-owned bank. Of Fukumoto they wrote that after she had been in office for just a year she was "selected by the RNC in Washington to showcase its Women on the Right Unite program to elect more conservative women to office."

After she was dumped for calling Trump a bully, she didn't change her bigoted right wing positions on issues-- she's anti-Choice, an incredibly homophobic asshole and has always opposed all legislation meant to give Hawaii's working families a break. She just changed the "R" next to her name to a "D." That's pure opportunism, not a Saul on the Road to Damascus conversion. Instead, she told HKON2 that "If you followed what happened at the state convention, I got booed for about 10 minutes straight for raising concerns about President Trump... [T]here have been many calls for my resignation, and my caucus members have raised concerns about whether or not that means I’m a Republican, whether or not that means I’m fit for leadership, whether or not that means I should even be an elected official. My caucus has asked me to stop speaking out about Trump and to make a commitment. They’ve said they’ll keep me as minority leader if I make a commitment not to speak out against Trump for the remainder of his term." Although Fukumoto backs every single reactionary Republican policy she couldn't make a deal and the other 5 GOP legislators in the state House fired her as Minority Leader.

Democrats let her join their party, even though she hasn't indicated she would ever vote with Democrats. Example: when the House voted to require gun owners to register in a database, she supported her NRA allies and voted NO. Similarly, when the Dems voted to end the sale of tobacco products to people under the age of 21, she was one of 7 votes in opposition. And, of course, when the House passed a bill legalizing same sex marriage, she voted against it-- and lead the opposition against it (as did Donna Kim, who had also voted against Civil Unions twice in 2011 and once in 2010).

Meanwhile, Hawaii's Democratic political establishment-- basically the folks who pushed Clinton during the primary and were rebuffed by Hawaii's voters 70-30%-- want to see Attorney General Doug Chin win the seat. Before being appointed AG, he was a sleazy Republican lobbyist. The party feels it has an anti-Trump candidate and they hope they can confuse voters into thinking anti-Trump= progressive. It doesn't. Chin challenged the Trump travel ban-- he was chosen to do it by the Association of Democratic Attorneys General because the Muslim ban isn't a big issue in Hawaii-- and got tons of press for it. Chin has never run for office before. A not very sterling former lobbyist, if he runs, you can count on lots of heretofore hidden baggage emerging. He was a lobbyist for Wasserman Schultz's favorite private prison racket, Corrections Corporation of America and he worked under Honolulu's throw-away-the-key Republican Mayor Peter Carlisle for years as deputy prosecutor, where he opposed criminal justice reform and added to Hawaii's overcrowded prisons, eventually authorizing a deal to send Hawaii prisoners to a Corrections Corporation of America prison in Arizona. Cozy! As a corporate lawyer for Carlsmith Ball, Chin worked for Wall Street banksters against the legitimate interests of Hawaii's working families, reason enough to oppose his attempt to get into Congress.

In September Karen from Maui wrote at Daily Kos that Chin has "been defending business interests who have violated the law and quite rightly the courts have smacked him down. Don't let his one good act (suing over the Muslim Ban) mislead you into thinking he is not the ultimate corporate tool. He is no progressive. Not even close." While other states and cities have stood up to ICE, Chin has been more than compliant. in fact, under Chin Hawaii's per capita deportation rate has been the highest in the nation. Meanwhile, he has a well-earned reputation for approving lots and lots of pay-to play sweetheart deals with millionaire developers and contractors. Chin isn't a progressive, just an anti-Trump Democrat, with more in common with Fukumoto than with an actual Democrat. And, yes, he's a crazy anti-LGBT nutcase too, a gay-hating pastor of a gay-hating church. The church supports ignorant homophobic conversion therapy. And Doug Chin wasn't just attending this anti-gay, anti-marriage equality, conservative, "cult-like" church-- he was the preacher who helped build it, and led his congregation to oppose gay-rights and support gay-conversion therapy for over 20 years. And he's still there! This resistance stuff is opportunistic and inauthentic. If Hawaii was a red state, he'd be running as a Republican.

2 anti-progressive crackpot gay-haters, Chin and Kim

Anti-Gay Zealots Like Doug Chin Shouldn't Be Running For Congress As Democrats

Most of us outside Hawaii who have heard of Doug Chin know him as the courageous Attorney General-- appointed, not elected-- who has gone after Trump. Rachel Maddow tried making him a star on her show without doing any diligence about what she was extolling. I bet ole Rachel never saw that YouTube video up top. Yep, that's Doug Chin preaching like an insane zealot, screaming his homophobic rantings-- "God is right; your family is wrong." Holy Moly! A real vessle of the holy ghost at the Oahu Church of Christ.

That's over ten years ago but Chin had already married and graduated from law school, so he wasn't exactly a child. One of his benefactors, Republican former Mayor Peter Carlisle recalled first meeting him at Chin's church while Carlisle was campaigning. Carlisle said he was so impressed with Chin's public speaking, he told him to look him up if he ever needed a job. The Oahu Church of Christ is a branch of the extremely controversial International Churches of Christ-- not to be confused with the pro-LGBT equality United Church of Christ-- described in 2000 as "[a] fast-growing Christian organization known for aggressive proselytizing to [US] college students" and as "one of the most controversial religious groups on campus." Some call it a cult. And Chin's church is one of the 100 that signed onto a letter to oppose same-sex marriage during Hawaii's 2013 special session.

The church supports ignorant homophobic conversion therapy. And,Doug Chin wasn't just attending this anti-gay, anti-marriage equality, conservative, "cult-like" church-- he was the preacher who helped build it, and led his congregation to oppose gay-rights and support gay-conversion therapy for over 20 years. And he's still there!

A Republican pattern is emerging: Chin (1) helped lead the anti-gay movement as a religious zealot for 20 years, (2) added to mass incarceration (inmate population increased from 5000-6200) and bragged about caging the most people of the 100 prosecutors working under Republican Peter Carlisle, and (3) served as a corporate lobbyist and lawyer for private prisons, big banks, and wall street investment firms.

This resistance stuff is opportunistic and inauthentic. If Hawaii was a red state, he'd be running as a Republican. He's expected to declare his candidacy for the open Honolulu congressional seat as early as this week-- and as a Democrat-- exactly the kind of Democrat we need fewer of in Congress. I feel like we're making progress persuading state Rep. Kaniela Ing to run for this seat. His record is amazing-- but in the opposite way from Chin's. He's the state's most effective and dedicated progressive leader, the only progressive to have supported Bernie during the primary-- while the whole establishment backed Hillary. Hawaii's voters agreed with Kaniela, not the establishment, and Bernie cleaned up on caucus day in every part of the state, winning 23,530 (70%) to 10,125 (30%)-- and also beating Trump, Cruz, Rubio, Kasich, Carson and the Jebster combined (13,377).

An Open House Seat In Hawaii-- Beware The Fake Progressive

Lobbyist Doug Chin

Whether she wins or loses, the biggest wave from Colleen Hanabusa's decision to primary Governor David Ige is that her plum Honolulu-based House seat (PVI is D+17-- won last year by Clinton 63.1% to 30.5%) came up for grabs. Last year Bernie swept the Democratic caucuses in Hawaii, beating Hillary 23,530 to 10,125 (and out-polling Trump's limp 5,677). It would make sense for the Democrats to run a progressive and not some corporate shill. But... well, you know the Democratic Party.

They have an anti-Trump candidate and they hope they can confuse voters into thinking anti-Trump= progressive. It doesn't. The establishment pick, Attorney General Douglas Chin challenged the Trump travel ban-- a good thing to do-- and got tons of press for it, but Chin was appointed to the job by the governor and he's never run for office before. A not very sterling former lobbyist, if he runs, you can count on lots of heretofore hidden baggage emerging. He was a lobbyist for Wasserman Schultz's favorite private prison racket, Corrections Corporation of America and he worked under Honolulu's throw-away-the-key Republican Mayor Peter Carlisle for years as deputy prosecutor, where he opposed criminal justice reform and added to Hawaii's overcrowded prisons, eventually authorizing a deal to send Hawaii prisoners to a Corrections Corporation of America prison in Arizona. Cozy! As a corporate lawyer for Carlsmith Ball, Chin worked for Wall Street banksters against the legitimate interests of Hawaii's working families, reason enough to oppose his attempt to get into Congress.

This week Karen from Maui wrote at Daily Kos that Chin has "been defending business interests who have violated the law and quite rightly the courts have smacked him down. Don't let his one good act (suing over the Muslim Ban) mislead you into thinking he is not the ultimate corporate tool. He is no progressive. Not even close."

While other states and cities have stood up to ICE, Chin has been more than compliant. in fact, under Chin Hawaii's per capita deportation rate has been the highest in the nation. Meanwhile, he has a well-earned reputation for approving lots and lots of pay-to play sweetheart deals with millionaire developers and contractors.

Doug Chin isn't a progressive, just an anti-Trump Democrat. There will likely be several actual progressives who do run, one of which-- we're hoping-- will be Hawaii's most progressive state legislator, Kaniela Ing. We'll let you know if he decides to jump into the race. One extremely right-wing fake Democrat who is almost certainly running for the seat is the wretched state Sen. Donna Mercado Kim. Two other state senators, Karl Rhoads and Stanley Chang, are also considering the race.